Washing machine



April 1941- G. w. DUNHAM 2.237.813

WASHING MACHINE Fi1ed Ju1y8,1937 ZSheets-Sheet '1 Invntor": George wDunham,

by His Attorney.

April 3, G. w. DUNHAM .237.813

same menus Filed July 8, 19:7 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig.4.

' Inventor: Geovge W. Dunham,

is Attorney.

t Apr. 8, 1941 WASHING MACHINE George W. Dunham, Westport, Conn,assignor to General Electric Company, a corporation of New YorkApplication July 8, 1937, Serial No. 152,556

. to the upper end of the shai'tls a nut ll which 4 Claims.

The present invention relates to domestic trashing machines of the typein which washing it ellected by the oscillatory movement of a peg typedolly mounted within the tub.

The dollies of the peg type which have been previously used in washingmachines have failed to do uniform washing due to the fact that theclothes were caught and held on the pegs. It was, therefore, necessaryto manually redistribute the clothes several times during each washingoperation.

e object of my invention is to provide an improved dolly or the peg typewhich causes a continuous circulation of the clothes so that all partsof the clothes are brought into contact with the dolly and uniformwashing is obtained.

For a consideration of what I believe to be novel and my invention,attention is directed to the lollowing description and the claimsappended thereto.

in the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a tragmentary elevation,partially in section, of a trashing machine having a dolly embodying myinvention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the dolly; Fig. 3 is adiagrammatic view illustrating the action of the dolly; Fig. 4 is afragmentary elevation of a washing machine equipped with n modified formof the dolly; and Fig. 5 is a top plan view of the modified dolly.

ltelerring to the drawings, the tub I is sup. ported at the center by atubular post 2 prolecting through a central opening in the bottom oi thetub. The tub rests on a flange I on the post and is clamped between theflange and a nut t threaded n the post. Suitable gaskets I are arrangedbetween the tub and the flange and hetween the tub and the nut. Thelower end at the post 2 is fixed in any suitable manner (not shown) tothe top of a gear casing B. The gear casing is supported by acylindrical skirt 1 which provided with supporting legs 8. The gearcasing projects outside the skirt I and from the protecting end of thegear casing extends a tubular post 9 at the upper end of which a wringermay be mounted. A vertical shaft for driving the wl'inger extendsthrough the tubular post and is rotated by suitable gearing containedwithin the gear casing. Such gearing is well lrnown and is therefore notillustrated.

The post 2 extends upwardly into the tub above the normal water level,indicated by broken lines in Fig. 1. A vertical shaft In extends.upwardly through the post and is journaled at the upper end in a bearingI 2 carried by the post. Fixed fits into a complementary socket in thehub I4 of. the dolly thereby forming a driving connection between theshaft and the dolly. The shaft is supported by a thrust washer l6between the nut l3 and the upper end of the post 2. The hub I4 is acasting having a rounded upper end ii and cylindrical side walls lldepending below the upper end or the post l. The hub prevents leakage ofwater between the post and the shaft it. During. washing, the shalt idis oscillated through an angle oi about 221% at a rate of the order of60 times a minute hy gearing contained within the gear casing t. knownand m therefore not illustrated. Fixed to the lower end oi the walls llis a sheet metal cylinder 88 the lower end of which is closely adlacentthe bottom cl the into. The cylinderls provided with a rolled-lower edgeit. Within the lower end ol the cylinder i8 is a cup-shaped member Mhaving its outer walls It fixed to the inside of the cylinder and havingupturned cylindrical walls 22 at the center bearing on the post 2 andguiding the oscillatory movement of the dolly. Protecting outwardly fromthe lower end of the cylinder it are iour equally spaced cylindrlcalpegs 23 oil rubber or other similar flexible and resilient material. Thepegs project through openings in the cylinder and are partiallysupported therein, by cylindrical flanges 24." The portions 25 of thepegs within the cylinder are square and butt against tabs 26 struck outof the side walls I! of the cup-shaped member 20. The sides of theopenings provided by the tabs 26 engage the sides 01 the portions 25 o!the pegs and prevent turning of the pegs. The pegs are shown projectinghorizontally item the cylinder but satisfactory results will be obtainedif the p e are inclined upward or downward from the horizontal. 0n thecylinder II and the depending walls I! of the hub II are verticalextending corrugations 21 which have a rubbing or scrubbing action onthe clothes during the oscillation of the dolly.

When no clothes are in the tub the oscillation of the dolly producessubstantially no circulation 01 water. Slight water currents are set upby the corrugations 21 but these currents are not of appreciablemagnitude. The pegs 23, being round, are streamlined in the sense thatthey have substantially no effect on the water. The operation or thedolly is, therefore, substantially diflerent' from that of agitatorshaving blades which produce violent water currents.

when clothes are placed in the tub the pegs 23 Such gearing is wellengage and forcibly oscillate the clothes. Due to the resistance offeredby the water to the forcible oscillation of the clothes, the pegs aredeflected rearwardly with respect to the direction of rotation as showndiagrammatically in Fig. 3. Since the pegs are supported only at theirinner ends the rearward deflection of the pegs increases toward theouter ends. The leading edges of the pegs are therefore inclinedrearward with respect to the direction of rotation at a rate whichincreases toward the outer ends of the pegs. In other words the leadingedges of the pegs have a curvature which increases toward the outer endsof the pegs. When the direction of rotation-of the dolly is reversed,the deflection of the pegs reverses, the leading edges having the samecurvature with respect to the direction of rotation. the trailing edgesof the pegs do not forcibly engage the clothes and the shape of thetrailing edges is therefore of less importance. The leading edges of thepegs exert a force on the clothes at right angles to the surface thereofforcing the clothes outward in the direction indicated generally by thearrow 28. When the dolly reverses its direction of rotation the pegs 23deflect in the opposite direction, forcibly oscillating the clothes andforcing the clothes outward. The side walls of the tub deflect theclothes upward. The outward movement of the clothes adjacent the bottomof the tub produces suction at the center which draws the clothesdownward around the cylindrical body portion Id of the dolly. Duringthis downward movement the clothes are subjected to a rubbing action bythe corrugations 21. The operation of the dolly therefore produces amechanical circulation of the clothes outward ad-. jacent the bottom ofthe tub, upward along the side walls of the tub and downward at thecenter of the tub. This circulation is indicated diagrammatically inFig. 1 bythe arrows 29.

The washing action of the dolly is .due mainly to the forcibledistortion and oscillation of the clothes produced by engagement withthe pegs 23. The clothes being moved by the pegs are positivelydistorted causing the weave and the fibers of the woven threads to openand close so freeing the dirt confined therein. The clothes are alsosubjected to a rubbing action due to the contact with the pegs and alsoto contact with adjacent clothes on all sides. The clothes are alsoviolently moved with respect to the water so that all exposed dirt isflushed off.

, In Figs. 4 and 5 is shown a washing machine having a modified form ofdolly using rigid instead of flexible pegs. This dolly has a conicalbody portion 30 which is mounted on the upper end of the oscillatingshaft in and driven in the same manner as shown in Fig. 1. The conicalsurface of the body portion 30 assists in directing the downwardmovement of the clothes. The relatively large diameter prevents tanglingof the clothes at the center of the tub. Projecting from the lower endof the body portion 30 are four rigid pegs 3|. These pegs are flattenedin a horizontal direction and the upper and lower surfaces thereof arecurved as shown in Fig. 4 to provide a stream-lined transverse sectionso that the pegs have substantially no effect in producing watercurrents. The greatest width of the pegs is adjacent the surfaces of thebody portion are forcibly moving the clothes, are inclined rearwardlywith respect to the direction of rotation of the dolly and thereforeexert an outward force on the clothes moving the clothes outwardadjacent the bottom of the tub.

The operation of the dolly is substantially the same as that of thedolly shown in Figs. 1 to 3, inclusive. During the oscillation of thedolly the leading edges of the pegs engage the clothes and forcibly movethe clothes circumferentially and at the same time force the clothesoutward toward the side walls of the tub as indicated by the arrows 32and 33 in Fig. 5 after which the clothes are deflected upward by theside walls of the tub. The arrow 32 shows the direction of movement whenthe dolly is moving in a clockwise direction and the arrow 33 shows thedirection of movement when the dolly is moving in a counter-clockwisedirection. The outward movement of the clothes produces a suction at thecenter which causes the clothes to move downward around the body portion30. If desired, the body portion may be provided with corrugations orother rubbing projections which will increase the washing action. Theresultant circulation of the clothes is therefore outward along thebottom of the tub, upwardv along the side walls of the tub and downwardat the center of the tub as shown by arrows 34 in Fig. 4.

As in the previously described construction, the circulation of theclothes is due to the forces exerted on the clothes by the pegs. Theflattened or stream lined section of the pegs produces more intimatecontact of the clothes with the pegs which increases the effectivenessof the washing by increasing the area of contact between the pegs andthe clothes. The more intimate contact between the clothes and the pegsalso causes a more positive oscillation of the clothes increasing thewashing action due to the distortion of the fabric and to rubbing of theclothes in contact with the peg against adjacent clothes.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates is:

1. In a washing machine, a tub, a dolly at the center of the tubarranged for oscillation about a vertical axis, said dolly having a fewlong spaced radial pegs rigidly secured thereto and projectinghorizontally from the dolly in the lower part of the tub only, said pegsbeing so constructed and arranged throughout the major portion of theirlength as to present to the clothes in contact therewith rearwardlyinclined leading edges as regards the direction of rotation of the dollysaid pegs being of stream-lined transverse section whereby substantiallyno circulation of water is produced by the pegs, the rearwardinclination and radial extent of said pegs being sufficient to'cause theclothes in contact therewith to be forced outward toward the sides ofthe tub with sufficient momentum so that the clothes circulate upwardalong the sides of the tub and downward at the center of the tub.

2. In a washing machine, a tub, a dolly at the center of the tubarranged for oscillation about a vertical axis, said dolly having a fewlong spaced radial pegs rigidly secured thereto and projectinghorizontally from the dolly in the lower part of the tub only, said pegsbeing flexible and resilient so that the force exerted thereon by theclothes causes the free ends thereof to deflect rearwardly with respectto the direction of rotation of the dolly and said pegs having a radialin the lower part of the tub, said pegs being of flattened section ingenerally horizontal planes, the leading edges of the pegs beinginclined rearwardly with respect to the direction of rotation of thedolly and having a radial extent suillcient to cause the clothes incontact therewith to be forced radially outward toward the sides of thetub with sufiicient momentum so that the clothes circulate upward alongthe sides of the tub and downward at the center of the tub.

4. In a washing machine, a tub, a dolly having a vertical body portionat the center of the tub extending from the bottom of the tub tosubstantially the water level in the tub and arranged for oscillationabout a vertical axis, a few long spaced radial pegs projectinghorizontally from said body portion in the lower part of the tub,

.said pegs being of flattened section in generally horizontal planes andthe leading edges of the pegs being inclined rearwardly with respect tothe direction of rotation of the dolly and having a radial extentsuflicient to cause the clothes in contact therewith to be forcedradially toward the sides of the tub with a momentum suflicient so thatthe clothes circulate upward along the sides of the tub and downward atthe center of the tub.

GEORGE W. DUNHAM.

